Well, no. He may be sort of a standing joke among the Cloggers (and many UCers), but at least his salary hasn’t hit 9 digits. At $783, 103, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual report places Mark Yudof seventh on the list of highest-earning executives at public universities.

At a staggering $1,818,911 per year, Ohio State University’s E. Gordon Gee earns the title of most highly compensated president. The information was taken from the fiscal year of 2009-2010 and the Chronicle differentiated between total compensation, which does not include provisions or retirement, and total cost of employment.

Lawmakers are not unaware of the inordinately high costs of these executives, but in order to keep quality leadership, they must be willing to pay the price. One Ohio senator describes it as a “throw-your-hands-up-in-the-air sort of sentiment.” Don’t think we aren’t a little bit understanding. If you’re gonna splurge for the buckwheats, then you kind of need to make the big bucks.

Today is a “day of action” for public education, which means you’ll probably run into a “Lay off Yudof” sign during the course of your day. We, at the Clog also find Mark Yudof to be a greatsource of material, but mostly because we’re fascinated by him.

So before you insist that he be laid off (a claim we have neither the time nor maturity to discuss in detail here), here are some things you might not know about our “stout and self-deprecating” UC president.

Guess a few dozen somebodies let their spoons get a little too big, know what we mean? No? Well, basically, those (self-described) “craven scum” UC executives — the ones who thought that NOW would be a good time to dredge up some unimplemented pension increases based on ASUC-esque technicalities — have been common sensibly shot down. Officially, this time. Sort of.

At least, as of Tuesday, we know that the UC Board of Regents Chair Russell Gould and UC President Mark Yudof jointly intend to formally put the issue to bed … to the best of their abilities … at the regents’ next meeting. They’ll get there soon enough.

In the video, Yudof talks about the UC for CA “grassroots movement” which since November has added 130,000 members to its advocacy group. More information can be found at www.ucforca.org (not to be confused with ucca.org, which is the read more »

Phew. That AirBART trip was kind of a pain in the ass, but we’re just glad to be here at Oakland International Airport on our way home. Home–far, far removed from the pressures of budget crises, and strikes and other university-related bad vibes, where we can eat away our sorrows and rest … Wait, what does that ad on the wall say?